Once upon a time, not so long ago from our time, black metal combined forces with shoegaze, something innovative and welcome to say the least, yet now it has become some sort of trend and enough bands approaching this sound have reached a "stardom" status amongst the intellectual elite audience or just adorers of something different of the underground metal scene.

Cold Body Radiation is a one-man band, hailing from the Netherlands, blending the dreamy and/or hallucinating melancholy of shoegaze with the grieving, tormented aesthetics of depressive black metal. The Great White Emptiness, being a debut album as well, breathes through hope and melancholy, the oxymoron I like in this kind of music and whenever these two contradictive emotions harmonize in a wonderful way I consider the marriage successful; and the album as well. There are moments when you find yourself dreaming amongst the rays of sunlight, whereas suddenly, something happens and the architecture begins to crumble and bitterness takes its toll.

The production is a bit blurry (but ideal for the band), something I enjoyed quite a lot dare I say, as if it was the thin red line inbetween the clouds that let the sun unfold cowardly part of its resonance and right the next moment they take it away. The overall atmosphere is entrancing, overwhelming with fragile emotions, either being positive or negative, with outbursts of sorrow adorned with unearthly screams, distorted guitars flowing and floating keyboard passages. The chords pave the way to the dream which begins with "Emission," heavier distortion mainly takes you backwards and so it goes on as the album flows, to find release at the end of "The Great White Emptiness," having already cherished the magnificence of negativity, "Nothing."

If you're fond of this kind of music then Cold Body Radiation's The Great White Emptiness is an album for you, I personally enjoyed the journey through melody and aggression, dream and woe, light and gloom.